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MALE VOICE: The people, events, and issues shaping our community. This is Comcast Newsmakers.

SPERO CANTON: Florida recently passed a new law applying caps on non-measurable damages in medical malpractice cases. There are many states that have implemented this type of law. But the Sunshine State's statute is the most complicated. Here to help us understand what this all means is Attorney Manuel Dobrinsky. And thanks very much for joining us. This--is our medical malpractice statute different from other states?

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: Yes, they are. You know, different states vary. One of the ways is the amount or how the damages are capped, number one; and number two, the provisions as to whether or not you can go above the caps in certain circumstances.

SPERO CANTON: Okay. From what I understand from you, this is a bad thing if you're a consumer. But it's a good thing if you're an insurance company or a doctor.

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: Well, it's definitely a good thing if you're an insurance company. And it's probably a good thing if you're a doctor. But if you're a consumer or you're the victim or you're the family member of somebody who has been injured by medical malpractice, it can potentially be devastating to you.

SPERO CANTON: What was the legislature trying to do in passing this law?

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: Well, I think what the legislature was trying to do--purportedly trying to do was trying to make sure that there was no medical crisis in the state of Florida--that is that doctors weren't leaving the state or we wouldn't be able to get doctors to practice here. But that really is not what the truth was. In fact, when the legislature passed the law, they took testimony from the insurance companies that said that medical malpractice claims were down. And the amount of the awards were down. So when they passed the law, they passed it at a time when quite frankly there was no crisis in Florida that they had to consider or take care of.

SPERO CANTON: When we say non-measurable, what does that term tell us?

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: I think what people really--you know, the layperson really would understand that as is what we call pain and suffering damages. And the pain and suffering damages are the damages that you get for your loss of enjoyment of life or to compensate you for the loss of a loved one.

SPERO CANTON: This has really changed the way doctors do business down here or also the premiums they pay to insurance companies?

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: See, unfortunately, it hasn't. And that's--

SPERO CANTON: [Interposing] It hasn't?

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: No, and that's really, you know, part of the craziness of this is that the insurance companies keep making record profits. They haven't really adjusted the doctors' premiums. And you know, if you really wanted to affect insurance premiums for doctors in Florida, what you would do is you would actually require that all doctors maintain insurance. This would spread the risk across the board. Right now, although purportedly there's a law that says they should have insurance, it's not enforced. And there are many doctors that are actually uninsured.

SPERO CANTON: So the legislature actually passed a law to get a desired result. But that desired result never came along.

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: No, the only thing that has happened is that the victims of malpractice or their family members are kept from getting their proper reward or their proper day in court.

SPERO CANTON: Any idea that this might be overturned in the future?

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: Well, you know, there are cases that are making their way up through the appellate courts. And we believe very strongly that when the Florida Supreme Court takes a look at this statute, when there's a case before it, it's going to consider the statute as unconstitutional.

SPERO CANTON: You think so? On what grounds?

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: Well, first of all, if you look at it, there's sort of an equal protection ground. The caps as they are right now--let me give you an example. Let's say the cap is $500,000 for doctors on a non-death case. Let me make it easier--maybe on a death case, $1 million on a death case. Now if you're a surviving spouse and your spouse died, you get $1 million total. That's all you can get.

SPERO CANTON: Mm-hmm.

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: If you're a surviving spouse and four children, the most you can get is $1 million total. So now instead of you getting $1 million, you're only getting $200,000. So a family with more people in it as survivors gets less per person than a family with less people in it.

SPERO CANTON: Mm-hmm.

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: And that to me, I think that's problematical.

SPERO CANTON: And that wasn't considered in the legislation.

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: That--well, I don't know if it was considered or not. But that's the way they pass a law. It's just an absolute cap of $1 million for a death case against the physician, regardless of how many family members are affected.

SPERO CANTON: Okay. So this--very interesting. So the whole thing is still up in the air, what might happen in the future.

MANUEL DOBRINSKY: Right.

SPERO CANTON: This hour's newsmaker broke down Florida's new medical malpractice cap statute. There's nothing difficult about podcasts on demand. Learn where the sailors of the USS Maine tragedy were laid to rest. Head to "Get local" and switch to Destination Keys. I'm Spero Canton.